CHAMPION OF FAITH — AND FREEDOM

New York Post (NYPost.com) ^ | April 3, 2005 | Ralph Peters

[RayChuang88]

April 3, 2005 -- FROM the Cuban Missile Crisis to President Reagan's resounding "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" there were plenty of supposed turning points in the Cold War. Personally, I believe the tide turned on Oct, 16, 1978, when a Polish cardinal, Karol Jozef Wojtyla, became Pope John Paul II.

It was a pivotal moment for humankind, but a dark day for the Kremlin — the geriatric Politburo must have clutched the remains of their shriveled hearts. It was a glorious day for the Catholic Church, as the Vatican took an unmistakable stand against the godless religion of Communism. It was also a momentous recognition of the role the Polish people long had played in the struggle for freedom, faith and justice.

The mid 1970s had seemed a new dark age. After painful American losses, much of Indochina had fallen to Communism. The West suffered through oil crises, economic doldrums and political terrorism. No outsider grasped how rotten the Soviet system had grown. Around the world, leftist revolutionaries believed the future was theirs.

Then the College of Cardinals broke with tradition to choose a new pope from behind the Iron Curtain. By doing so, they accomplished what vast armies and the threat of nuclear weapons could not do: Gave hope to hundreds of millions of the oppressed, unhinging the Soviet empire from within.

Suddenly, it was Christ vs. the Kremlin — and Jesus had a home-court advantage.

[RayChuang88]

This commentary sums up perfect why the late John Paul II--the former Karol Wojtyla--was truly a Man of our times.

[Restorer]

Now the people who had saved Christendom from Mongols, Turks and Muscovite barbarians heard a call to rise to the struggle again.

I'll buy their role against the Turks, especially at the Siege of Vienna.

The Mongols were not defeated by the Poles. Quite the reverse. They chose to go home on their own.

The Muscovites (during the period they were called such) were militarily primitive during their conflicts with the Poles. Even had they defeated and conquered the Poles, the Muscovites would have been even less capable of contending with the Germans and Austrians, who were much more advanced than the Poles.